Major Questions Remain Regarding Woman Found Mummified In Her Car 5 Years After Death

People are struggling to figure out how the body of a Michigan woman was discovered mummified at her home five years after she died, despite the fact that she had nine brothers and sisters.

Pia Farrenkopf of Pontiac was 44 in 2009 at the time police believed she died. Friends and family, which included nine siblings, reportedly describe her as a woman who lived alone, was smart and fun, but introverted. When she vanished a few years ago, after withdrawing $1,500 from her checking account, no one became immediately suspicious, reports the Daily Mail.

Farrenkopf's body might still be uncovered if not for the fact that the bank foreclosed on her house in 2013 when her bank account was finally depleted after years in which mortgage payments were automatically being deducted from her account. Prior to her death, the IT worker was employed at ALLTEL Information Services, where she programmed banking software and made a good living.

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Her body was reportedly discovered in 2014 in the backseat of her Jeep Liberty by two repairmen who had been hired to repair a hole in her roof, reports the Detroit Free Press. The car had been parked in her garage and the woman's body was mummified.

Investigators say she was found with a partially drank bottle of wine by her side, which wasn't found to have fingerprints. She also reportedly had hundreds of unopened letters in her possession and several packs of unopened cigarettes.

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Her home, which was usually kept tidy, according to friends, was in disrepair, littered with soda bottles and covered in mold.

Because her remains were mummified, the medical examiner was reportedly unable to conduct a full autopsy report and the cause of Farrenkopf's death remains unknown.

Her family members say they tried to contact her over the years, but that it wasn't unusual for her to disappear and send postcards from faraway places.

"Sometimes she would go, literally, for years without us hearing from her," said her sister, Jean LeBlanc, who lives near Boston, where Pia and her nine sisters and brothers grew up. "And then all of a sudden, she'd show up, so nobody ever thought anything about it."

Despite being described as a woman who smartly saved her money, police say she found herself in legal trouble over the years. In 2005, she reportedly failed to respond to a lawsuit claiming she had broken a lease for a fitness business she was attempting to open in Waterford, Massachusetts. Three separate lawsuits were also filed against her from 2005 to 2007 accusing her of not paying her credit card bills.